# 2 Why do we need a billing system when accounting covers billing?

# 2 Why do we need a billing system when accounting covers billing?

In today's evolving financial tech stack, businesses use a mix of tools to manage their day-to-day operations, from invoicing to full-fledged accounting. While accounting platforms typically come with built-in invoicing features, specialized billing systems still have a strong place in the mix. While both can coexist and even complement each other, one question still prevails:

If accounting software already includes invoicing, why do we need a separate billing system?


The answer is simple: sometimes, less is more. Let's take a deeper look.

1. Powered with simplicity

Not every business needs full accounting. Some just need to send an invoice and get paid. That's where a billing system lives.

It strips down the process to only what you need. Creating invoices, payment collection, and maybe a few reminders. As simple as that. No finance background required. No lengthy multi-step process in it. You should be able to create your first invoice in seconds, even if you are new to the system.

2. Built for billing

A full accounting system is powerful, but always not always necessary upfront. If you are not tracking liabilities, reconciling bank statements, or preparing financial reports, then you are likely to pay for features you are not going to use.

A dedicated billing system focuses only on the core concepts like revenue tracking, invoice automation, follow-ups, and dunning. Staying focused on billing allows the system to stay simple, lightweight, and tailored to how you actually bill, be it one-time, recurring, usage-based, or subscription-based.  

3. Flexible across industries

Every industry has its quirks. A retail store might need barcode scanning, A pharmacy may need expiry date tracking, and SaaS needs recurring billing. Each has its operational flow and its own industrial niche.

That's why a billing system shouldn't be rigid. It needs to adapt to these varying billing models without getting bloated or overly complex. Whether you are invoicing by units, time, tiered pricing, or bundled services, the system should bend to fit your business and not the other way around.

4. Invoice with ease

Billing shouldn't slow down your operations each day. A good billing system allows you to send invoices in seconds, from anywhere on any device, be it a laptop, PC, tablet, or any smartphone.

It should also speak to your brand through a custom logo, your template styles, and personalized reminders. In case you are working with international clients, multi-currency should be available when it is required without going through a major switch. The system should handle it all with ease.

5. Less Compliance Pressure

Tax laws are complex and different in different parts of the world. Sales Tax in the US. VAT in the UK or EU. GST in Australia or India. Many businesses didn't want to handle that complexity themselves, and some businesses are yet to get to the tax thresholds.

Billing systems let you keep things simple; just add taxes to the transaction, record your revenue, and export the data when it's time to file. Your accountant or tax advisor can take it from there. You stay focused on running your business without having to master compliance tools and deal with those overheads.

6. Be Cost-Effective

When you're building or running a small business, every penny counts. Every tool you choose should justify its cost. If your day-to-day activity involves billing, why pay for advanced accounting features?

A billing system gives you what you need without making you pay for what you're not using. It should be cost-efficient, focused, and scalable when you need it to. You can always climb to a full accounting system when your operations require it. But, until then, your billing system will do all the wonders.

Begin with Billing

So, this precisely clarifies why we need a billing system. Simple, flexible, ease of use, industry adaptability, and cost efficiency are exactly what a good billing system should offer.

That's exactly what Zoho Billing is built for. It brings together a range of features that help you manage revenue without overpouring with what you don't use. Whether you're creating a simple invoice or setting up a complex recurring billing flow, Zoho Billing adapts to your business and keeps your complexities grounded.

As you grow, it connects seamlessly with Zoho Books, letting you expand into accounting and beyond. With Zoho Billing, you don't just get a tool; you get a complete ecosystem that fits right where your business is today and supports where it's headed tomorrow.

First things first: Get started with Zoho Billing.

    • Sticky Posts

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

      Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

    • Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

    • Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

      Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

    • Recent Topics

    • Tip of the Week #71–Auto-move incoming messages to the right inboxes with keywords

      We all know that customer-facing teams, especially your sales and support teams, can’t afford to miss even a single customer conversation. But sometimes, sales queries or support requests can easily get lost in a crowded inbox or even end up in the wrong

    • Clearing Fields using MACROS?

      How would I go about clearing a follow-up field date from my deals? Currently I cannot set the new value as an empty box.

    • Migrating a Zoho Forms form into Zoho Creator

      Hi, How can I migrate my Zoho Forms form into Zoho Creator? Thanks. Truly, Emad

    • Is there any way to recall an email sent using Zoho CRM?

      If an email is sent using Zoho Mail, there is a recall option/functionality that is available to the sender. Is there any way to recall an email if it was sent using Zoho CRM? I can't seem to find that option. Any help would be appreciated.

    • Problem with reports due to "Connected" items change - Yes this IS a problem

      Now that the change has been made to use "connected" items I can no longer run the reporting I need in CRM. I should be able to start with Deals as the parent, connect down to the Account (Account_Name) on the deal as the child, then to any child items

    • Introducing notifications in the vendor portal

      Imagine this: You're a recruiter working with multiple vendors on a high-volume hiring project. You’ve just updated a job description after a last-minute change from the hiring manager. One of your vendors, however, is still working off the older version

    • CRM limit reached: only 2 subforms can be created

      we recently stumbled upon a limit of 2 subforms per module. while we found a workaround on this occasion, only 2 subforms can be quite limiting in an enterprise setting. @Ishwarya SG I've read about imminent increase of other components (e.

    • LESS_THAN_MIN_OCCURANCE - code 2945

      Hi I'm trying to post a customer record to creator API and getting this error message. So cryptic. Can someone please help? Thanks Varun

    • Analytics for notes created

      Is there a way I can see how many notes were created per day? Via reporting or analytics?

    • Cannot update Recurring_Activity on Tasks – RRULE not accepted

      Hello, I am trying to update Tasks in Zoho CRM to make them recurring yearly, but I cannot find the correct recurrence pattern or way to update the Recurring_Activity field via API or Deluge. I have tried: Sending a string like "RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1"

    • Add image to report...

      Greetings, I send a weekly color coded report via Creator email. I would like to add the legend somewhere in the report. Header, footer where ever. I have the legend saved on Google Drive and can access it via shared link. Sure someone has wanted to add

    • More controls for User Fields in CRM

      Dear All, We are here with a minor but crucial enhancement to the user fields—now set accessibility permissions to the records for user field. User field allows you to extend co-ownership of records to your peers. You can collaborate with them for certain

    • Calls to accounts rather than leads or contacts?

      So..... We have a dilemma and I'm hoping someone has encountered this before and figured out a fix. We have just migrated to Zoho. It's great.....expect for how "Calls" are handled.... We are B2B. We do not use the leads module. A "Lead/Prospect" for

    • Image Upload Field | Zoho Canvas

      I'm working on making a custom view for one of our team's modules. It's an image upload field (Placement Photo) that would allow our sales reps to upload a picture of the house their working on. However, I don't see that field as a opinion when building

    • Power of Automation :: Automated 'Delayed & Closed' Status Update Based on Due Date

      Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

    • Lead Blueprint transition in custom list view

      Hi, Is It possible to insert the Blueprint transition label in a custom Canvas list view? I am using Lead module. I see the status, but it would be great if our users could execute the Blueprint right from the list view without having to enter the detailed

    • Range names in Zoho Sheet are BROKEN!

      Hi - you've pushed an update that has broken range names. A previously working spreadsheet now returns errors because the range names are not updating the values correctly. I've shared a video with the support desk to illustrate the problem. This spreadsheet

    • populate email address and name in zoho desk?

      Is it possible to populate the email address and name in the zoho desk widget? We only use it in the context of an authenticated user, so we already know the user's name and email. Thanks,

    • Are there default/pre-built dashboards in Zoho Desk?

      Hi, I am looking for some pre-built dashboard templates in Zoho Desk, similar to what we can find in CRM/Projects, etc Thank you

    • SAP S/4 HANA to CRM Integration - change the SAP Client ID

      Hi I am trying to push the business partners from SAP S/4 HANA to ZOHO CRM module. The SAP Client ID is 421 in my case....kindly let me know how do I specify the sap client because it's a dropdown with specific values as of now. Thanks Ravi Aswani

    • Adding branded signature to tickets reply

      Hi, i am unable to figure out how to add signatures with logo to tickets reply. please advice .

    • How to share ticket numbers across different ticket types

      I'm running an event and have three different ticket types. Add on Event + Main Event - Early bird Main Event only - Early bird Add on Event only - Early bird And Standard class - shown but not available until early bird finishes Add on Event + Main Event

    • Adding Social Media Buttons to Basic Campaigns

      Hi, I'm quote new to using Zoho Campaigns and I can't work out how to add Social Media Buttons into my basic campaign? In MailChimp there's a button that brings the icons into your campaign for you. I've tried adding the social media icons as 'buttons' in Zoho but it's not looking great. Can anyone help? Thanks!

    • Hide Inactive Social Sign-In Providers from Login Screen

      Hello Zoho Team, We hope you are doing well. Currently, Zoho One allows admins to configure security policies and enable or disable Social Sign-In options for third-party providers such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook,

    • [Free Webinar] AI Agents in Zoho Creator - Creator Tech Connect

      Hello Everyone! We welcome you all to the upcoming free webinar on the Creator Tech Connect Series. The Creator Tech Connect series is a free monthly webinar that runs for around 45 minutes. It comprises technical sessions in which we delve deep into

    • Download All Attached Files

      It would be extremely useful to have "download-all" functionality for downloading files attached to a task, subtask, comment, forum post or hosted in the "Documents" section etc. We've instructed our users to zip multiple files prior to uploading, but of course they forget all the time. Having to download lots of files one-at-a-time off a comment or task wastes a lot of time.

    • Ship via Carrier Not Working Since Commerce Update

      Since the recent update to the Commerce platform, I can no longer use the ship via carrier function. It will take me to the address screen and let me verify them but when I go to save and move tot he next screen it will not do anything. This is happening

    • automations: Can I execute a step on a specific date?

      I have created a form in Zoho forms, and created a contacts list. I have also begun setting up an automation with the intention of sending the form to the contact list on a specific date every month (via email) for the entire year (essentially sending

    • Zoho Expense - The ability to add detail to a Trip during booking

      As an admin, I would like the ability to add more detail to the approved Trips. At present a requestor can add flights, accommodation details and suggest their preferences. It would be great if the exact details of the trip could be added either by the

    • Adding Folders in Android App

      Is it possible to create a new email folder within the Zoho Mail Android app?  Or can this only be done from the desktop version of Zoho Mail? Cheers!

    • Schedule Exports for Regular Project Updates

      Tracking project data often means exporting data at regular intervals. Instead of manually exporting data every time, users can schedule exports for Phases, Tasks, and Tasks in Zoho Projects. These exports can be set to run once, daily, weekly, or monthly

    • Question about custom fields using Pivot Tables.

      I have created a pivot table showing annual revenue of a client and how much payment that client is paying my company. Is there a way using pivot table to add an additional field that subtracts those to fields / shows me a percentage of that difference?

    • Request for Light/Dark Mode

      Would love the ability to switch between Light and Dark mode similar to Zoho CRM. https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/introducing-dark-mode-light-mode-a-new-look-for-your-crm

    • Journey Email - Ignored Contacts

      I have a journey setup which simply sends a string of emails over time. For some reason I am getting large amounts of the contacts who enter the first email being ignored and I can't find anywhere in reports or audit logs why these contacts are not

    • Involved account types are not applicable when create journals

      { "journal_date": "2016-01-31", "reference_number": "20160131", "notes": "SimplePay Payroll", "line_items": [{ "account_id": "538624000000035003", "description": "Net Pay", "amount": 26690.09, "debit_or_credit": "credit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000403", "description": "Gross", "amount": 32000, "debit_or_credit": "debit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000427", "description": "CPP", "amount": 1295.64, "debit_or_credit": "debit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000376", "description":

    • Zoho Books - Include Payment Terms as a Custom View filter

      It would be great if you could created a custom view based on Payment Terms. This would be really handy for seeing a list of customers who have credit terms. A workaround is not required. I could do something with a creditor checkbox, but it would be

    • How to update changed purchase account of item in invoice

      I have selected the wrong purchase account for various articles and created invoices. I had to adjust the purchase account in the article afterwards, but the old purchase account is still posted in the transaction-journal of the invoice. To adjust the

    • Help - Zoho CRM notification on mobile (IOS/Android)

      Hello Community! Can I get the IOS/Andoid CRM app to notify me of events, calls, etc. due as I can with MANY other apps?   I am running the free Zoho I would like this to be native to the Zoho CRM app. I do not want to write a sep. mobile app

    • Zoho Books Idea - Include another field in Bank Details for Address

      Hi Books team, Currently use the Description field in the Bank Details to store the bank's address. This works fine but it would be great if you could add another field for Bank Address, so that other notes about the bank account could be stored in the

    • a question about the COQL API v8

      When I specify eight or more values in a WHERE IN clause and execute it, an error occurs. Is there a limit to the number of values that can be specified in a WHERE IN clause? ↓Error select * FROM Vendors WHERE (id in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)) ↓Success

    • Next Page